A Day On The Job
Gandrayda still remembered his face. He was a medium height, smiley kid, about 18 years old. His name was Casey Wagner, heir to the company that created a special Plasma rifle that outlaws simply loved to use. His father was infamous for nonchalantly supplying his weapons to whoever he liked. The man never supplied space pirates, but his goods still had their fair share in contributing to the increasing crime rate. And apparently, the Federation had decided that his son had learned to much from him. So, when his body was hauled into the morgue that day, his death voucher said that he was killed by a Space Pirate raiding party.
But the truth of the matter was that she only looked like a space pirate.
He was followed everywhere by an old Vhozon named Kaimic, an exile from his race who made his living watching this boy. He had watched Casey grow from a baby, amazed at how quick humans developed, and how short their lives are.
She had to deal with him too.
She remembered the day clearly; she was in the Wagner family's personal estate. It was high in the mountains of Yria V, a cold desolate planet which was even colder atop the peaks. Four miles below was their weapons plant, as an area which was totally barren, ideal for a building filled with explosives and combustible plasma. Not to say the workers minded, robots had a tendency not to complain.
The estate was wrapped around the tallest mount, a pike of rock surrounded by buildings clinging on the vertical face. Walkways and landing pads were covered in drifts of snow and clumps of ice, making the white walls of the structure blend into the mountain in a way which could only be described as organic.
It was easy getting in, she transformed into a Tabulan wall-crawler to scale the mountainside, as she landed at the weapons plant to avoid suspicion. When she reached the top, a change was in order, and she continued to prowl the hallways as a Clbyu nurse. Seven or eight were constantly present at the facility, and to a human, they were all identical. She remembered passing two defense drones hovering outside the human's door, oblivious to the fact that she was here to kill their master.
The walkway to the boy's chamber was extremely long, and made out of transparent alloys so one could gaze out upon the dark blizzard that was constantly raging on the planet.
She clearly remembered stopping in the abandoned passageway and gazing out at the storm for a minute. She shifted into her true form as she watched flakes of snow violently whip pass the window, carried on aggressive gusts of wind.
"Not much of a view," she told herself ", but I bet Kaimic loves it here."
"I do, miss." The old guard growled. Gandrayda hardly even noticed him appear behind her.
Several moments of silence pass as the two watched the icy wind assault the window in front of them.
"You are a bounty hunter, Gandrayda, correct?" Kaimic's voice was low and raspy; his old age was evident most in his weathered voice. His eyes never left the windowpane before the two. Gandrayda slowly nodded.
"Is the target me or my charge?"
"The boy." She said, almost choking on the words.
"Well, in that case I must also do my job, with all due respect," he raised his Judicator and turned slowly to Gandrayda. ", it was nice to meet your acquaintance. But I must warn you, for my age, my shot is still spot on."
Gandrayda smiled. In an instant she was gone; Kaimic left nervously glancing around the walkway. She suddenly appeared at his right, launching a kick that he moved his weapon to block. As she flipped backwards, landing on her feet, Kaimic shot several super cooled plasma shots in her direction, which she avoided using rolls and flips.
"I'm impressed, in all my years, even the most impressive challengers fell to my Judicator."
Gandrayda smiled again, even more pleased that a wise old warrior would give her praise amidst a fight. She suddenly changed in to a brutish space pirate, and charged with the scythe they carry on their arms. Kaimic moved to the side as the blade impacted and shattered the pane separating them from the storm. With one wall of the hallway missing, Gandrayda could only smile once more as she and Kaimic stumbled this close to the edge. On one side of her was a fall that was perhaps 3 miles down, and on the other, was and angry old Vhozon warrior.
Between a rock and a hard place.
As Kaimic fired more Judicator rounds at her, she couldn't help but think. This creature was fighting for a boy he was simply hired to defend, risking his life. It was almost heartbreaking to think that this child, Casey Wagner, was worth his whole life.
And the point when her heart truly collapsed was when Kaimic took one wrong step. He was strafing around her, trying to put some distance between them, when he shuffled too far and met with nothing but a cold gust of air.
She walked to the edge of the hallway and looked down into the raging storm; Kaimic was nowhere to be seen. He deserved better. An old warrior like him would like to have died honorably in battle, not toppled off a cliff to meet with a certain fate.
Well, he could ponder that on his way down.
She slipped into the boy's room; he was not woken up by the noises of the battle between her and Kaimic.
"Heavy sleeper." She whispered, thinking aloud to herself.
The boy looked so serene. He slept with an almost innocent expression. He was lying in bed, sprawled out across the sheets with several blankets covering him. Who could blame him, it was freezing outside.
Gandrayda couldn't stand it. She took a pack she had been carrying and left it sitting in the middle of the floor. She returned to the ruptured walkway and turned into a flying War Wasp, and let the air currents take her to the base of the canyon.
As she reached her ship and looked up. Gandrayda, the most ruthless and stealth of the Galactic Federations bounty hunters felt for this child. He was paying for his fathers mistakes. And as she entered her ship and fired up its engines, she almost wished that she hadn't left the explosive charge in his room.
The facility went up in flame as she went past, half of it decimated by the bomb, the other half ablaze with the fires it had left behind.
Tonight she had taken two lives for someone else's mistake.
"I better get used to it."